Mid season check: Whats the record here on in?

anteater,

Tech should be 7-4 coming to Memorial Stadium, but if they pull the trigger on Kingsbury, that could be a very emotional game for Tech

 

I'm pessimistic at this point: 6-6. Hope I'm wrong...

 

I'll weigh in here. Texas will go 5-1 here on out or 4-2 worst case. I think we can fix the secondary woes by keeping people to playing their assignments. The corners have to watch out for wheel routes out of the backfield or from the TE, that lost us the USC and OU game. If the corners listen to their coaches and stick to their assignments OSU cannot bait us into leaving an uncovered RB running down the sideline or over the middle deep. I think we can match up better with OSU. They don't have the defense OU does nor the talent. I see our losses as TCU only, or TCU/WV. I think we finally pull the upset on a ranked team against OSU. To me it is Todd Orlando and the secondary coach who will be most important.

 

Correct; but it has now been 2 1/2 seasons since that happened so why should we expect any difference now?

 

I think someone may have mentioned it upthread, but if Ricky Williams, who never is a homer blinded by burnt orange glasses on Texas Gameday, says we will win out, then that's good enough for me.

 

In 2017 this defense has shown top 10 in total defense capability and then the secondary has a lapse which demoralizes the whole defense. Get the corners to play assignment football and fire them back up to play like they did against USC, ISU, San Jose State, even the second half against OU except that wheel route. That was what top 10 total defense looks like. But to keep doing it they have to see positive results or they resort back to bad habits, ie. gap control.

 

and the halfback pass.

 

Well, it's almost impossible to allow no big plays unless your playing Tarleton State. A halfback pass is not going to ruin your season. I played CB, so covering a wheel route is reasonable. Halfback pass is tricky and many are incomplete or intercepted. Most halfbacks can't throw. So I forget these kinds of gimmick plays....move on.

 

Yes AC, but in this case there were 3 defenders surrounding the halfback before he passed which the CB should have seen and stayed with his man. In this instance the halfback would have either thrown the ball away or ran for a year or two.

 

I always liked headhunting the halfback on option plays, don't recall a halfback pass in my day but that was a long time ago. I would have bit on a halfback pass.....so I give all CB a pass on those gimmick plays. That type of play is very hard not to bite on.

 

6-6 up to 9-3. We can beat any team left on the schedule.

 

This^^^ is more likely than: "We could lose to any team left on the schedule." Theoretically, both are possible; but the odds makers would wager that we would win out maybe 25 times out of 100; whereas they would wager maybe 5 times out of 100 we would lose out.
But if you had a stipulation that TH had to attempt field goals from the 35 on in on 4th downs over 4 yards, the odds of winning out would increase and the odds of losing out would decrease.
So can we get some Vegas muscle to lay on TH so we can win some serious money betting on the win out?

 

This is what I saw too. There were at least 3 defenders there to prevent the HB from advancing. It was a bad decision for KB to leave his man wide open like that.
He has a history of making bad decisions like this. He needs to learn to stick to his assignment and trust his teammates to play theirs.
At this point the defense is playing well, and "gambling" by a CB will be more of a liability than anything else.
I am not sure if its a trust issue, or if he just doesn't use his head.

 

Could say that about the majority of the OU passing plays in that game....

 

Is Boyd out of position or is Elliott out of position or both. I'm not a big fan of Boyd, but every time he gets torched, there is no safety help. I lean more heavily on Elliott because he can NEVER disguise his assignment, not to mention charging the LOS 20 seconds before the ball is snapped, and even before the play is called. Why not just announce our defense on the scoreboard. This is not a single game incident, but every game this year.

 

I say horns beat Kansas in a close one. That's it. Rest are "not the outcome we expected" but "I'm proud of our guys for hanging in there."

 

I watch most games on the TV, don't live in the Austin area but you would have to see the whole secondary and what they are doing on the play to know for sure. They're not all visible most plays but I think the play your talking about Elliott ran himself out of the play mugging the LOS. May have been the defensive call.

 

We lose just one more.

 

Personally I like gimmick plays up to a point. I think there should be a couple game. I would like to see you Heard coming in motion getting a handoff and then throwing a short pass to someone coming across running an underneath route that's good for 5 - 10 yards for a first down.

 

I think Boyd Lacks speed.

 

Boyd may lack speed, but on that play he stopped and waved at the WR running by; then he looked over at Elliott and motioned like "what the hell". Obviously one of them didn't know the defensive call, and "NO", Elliott was not within 7-10 yards of the LOS

 

Be gentle thrashing me around for this post, but to the OP I predict we lose one more game and play in the conference championship game. I don't see any team head and shoulders above the rest in this conference. We are getting better while the rest (other than Iowa St)have peaked.

 

I hope you guys are right with the optimistic 5- or 6- win counts, but our best win this year is a 17-7 victory over 4-2 Iowa State. It's a huge leap from that to beating Oklahoma State or TCU.

 

Ivan I hope you are right because I see only two sure wins (Baylor and Kansas); three sure losses (OSU, TCU and WVa); and one toss-up (sand aggy).

 

3-3, 4-2 if being optimistic.

 

I’m not even sure Baylor is a layup this year at their place.

 

Yea, we played gutsy against OU but you gotta remember Iowa St. beat them the week before.
If we beat Okie lite I will begin to feel optimism.

 

Baylor's defense is so bad that even an FCS went up and down the field on them. I don't see how we lose.

 

See Kansas last year

 

"....As ESPN’s Jake Trotter noted, the league currently boasts three College Football Playoff hopefuls in No. 4 TCU, No. 9 Oklahoma and No. 10 Oklahoma state, thanks in large part to offenses quarterbacked by four Heisman candidates. And the parity throughout is seemingly unprecedented, as TCU sits atop the conference, but then Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, West Virginia and even Iowa State sit tied for second place at 2-1 in league play.

“Who knows where the Big 12 stacks up against those conferences or the ACC, where the preseason favorite, Florida State, is down to its second QB and third loss, and the reigning champ, Clemson, just lost in a stunning upset by Syracuse,” Trotter said. “Regardless, the Big 12 is the best it’s been in several years. And it’s loaded with star power, depth and a series of big-time matchups that still lie ahead.”​